Today's Opinions

Three-time Indiana State School Music Association state finalist; 16-time ISSMA state finalist across two different classes; Bands of America Terra Haute Class A champion; Bands of America Grand Nationals finalist, with a fifth-place finish. The Tell City Marching Marksmen continued their heritage with a great conclusion to the 2014 season.

Congratulations, Perry County on 200 great years. The News’ Monday edition prints Saturday mornings so this is written before most of the weekend celebration of Perry County’s bicentennial gets underway. As of Friday morning, a 200-mile relay race was underway and preparations were being made for Saturday’s celebration at the Schergens Center.

I hope Saturday afternoon’s crowd was large. Keep an eye on Thursday’s edition for coverage.

Many of us will. In fact, well over 1,000 people have already cast ballots in early voting.

Others of us will turn out tomorrow to choose from the men and women who want to represent us in a several important posts, including county sheriff, prosecutor, auditor, clerk, coroner, state senator and state representative and Congress.

Those are important positions as they impact the direction of local, state and federal government.

I am engaged to Chris Coyle and I wanted to take a moment to speak to you about my family and his campaign.

I knew that when Chris decided to run for office, it was not an individual decision, but a family one. It was not a decision we made lightly. I am not originally from Perry County. I relocated my family here because of all that Perry County has to offer. A large part of that was the school system.

I have learned through various contacts that the current Perry County Prosecutor announced that he would convene a panel forming a grand jury to examine whether “Sheriff Lee Chestnut or any of his subordinates should be indicted for criminal misconduct in connection with the death of the young woman” identified as Whitney N. Turner.

I’m running for a seat on the Tell City-Troy Township School Board. My focus as a school board member is creating an environment where every child has the opportunity to get a quality education.

This requires small classes, rich curriculum, diverse electives, and advanced placement, career-technical, and vocational courses. Fiscal responsibility is paramount to ensure each dollar is wisely spent to benefit the students first.

I am sorry that I have not responded sooner, but the duties of being prosecutor have taken a great deal of my time lately as you may have read recently in the paper.

At the candidates’ debate there were a number of misstatements made by my opponent that went unchallenged due to time constraints. The most glaring of which is the statement that he has the same experience now as I had when I ran four years ago.